Beef and Linguine

Beef and linguine casserole makes a great freezer meal! You can double, triple, or whatever this recipe so that one is ready tonight and more are ready for another day The basics of Once A Month Cooking (OAMC) can be found at the link, and I’ve got other great OAMC recipes here.

Beef and Linguine Casserole

8 oz cottage cheese
1 c plain yogurt
8 oz cream cheese

1-1/2 lb ground beef
Green pepper, chopped
Onion, chopped
Salt
15 oz can of tomato sauce

16 oz linguine

1/4 to 1/2 c freshly grated Parmesan cheese

To make and serve immediately:
Mix the cottage cheese, yogurt, and cream cheese together in a large bowl. Set aside.

Brown the ground beef with the peppers, onions, and salt. At the same time, boil up the linguine to the al dente stage. Drain well and add to the cheese mixture while still hot. Place the linguine mixture into a large casserole and top with the meat mixture. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes at 350, top with parmesan cheese and serve.

To freeze and serve later:
Prepare the cheese mixture and place it in a freezer container. Do the same with the meat mixture. Do not prepare the linguine or grated cheese until time to assemble and cook. Freeze for later.

To serve, thaw the bags in the fridge overnight. Boil up the linguine, grate the cheese, and follow the instructions for assembly above. Cook for 30 minutes at 350 until hot, top with parmesan cheese and serve.

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Beef and linguine casserole (OAMC)

Korma sauce is a lovely Indian curry, but very very mild. If your family likes the idea of curry, but some recipes are just too strongly flavored, try this one! I like to use the sauce to smother vegetables and rice, but you can use it on mild-flavored fish or chicken as well. Usually when I make korma sauce, it’s a vegetarian night for us The recipe below makes enough to thoroughly smother rice and veggies for four.

Korma Sauce

3 T ghee or canola oil
1-1/2 t cumin seeds
1 t fennel seeds
1/2 t cardamom seeds
Cinnamon stick
3 bay leaves
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 t fresh ginger, minced
Onion, chopped
1/4 c water

3/4 c cream (or evaporated milk, or a combination)
1/2 c coconut milk

1 – 2 t garam masalah (prepared, or my favorite mix)
Salt

Optional garnishes:
Toasted almonds
Cilantro

Stir fry the seeds and spices until fragrant. Add the garlic, ginger, and onion and stir fry for until soft but not brown. Add the water and heat to boiling. Lower the heat and add the cream and coconut milk. Heat thoroughly. Just before serving, stir in the garam masalah and the salt. Serve over rice with cooked vegetables, garnishing with almonds and cilantro if desired.

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Korma sauce

Most of the time, we think of dahl as being made out of lentils or split peas, but other legumes can stand in too. We particularly like this mildly spicy dahl made from black eyed peas. I used the canned form to save time, but if you’ve got the time to soak and cook up the dried beans, the meal will be even more inexpensive.

Black eyed peas dahl

Ghee or mild vegetable oil
4 whole cloves
1/2 cinnamon stick
1 small onion, chopped
1 T fresh ginger, minced
6 to 8 oz plain yogurt
2 cans (15 oz) of black eyed peas
1/2 t ground tumeric
1/4 t ground red pepper
1/2 t garam masalah (prepared or my favorite mix)
2 t coriander
Salt to taste

In a large heavy skillet with a cover, saute the cinnamon and cloves for a few minutes. Add the onions and ginger and saute until golden. Drop the heat and add the yogurt and beans. Add the spices. Heat through and remove from heat. Cover and let stand for about 5 minutes. Serve over rice if desired, as a side or main dish.

Image: Cyndi Lavin

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Black eyed peas dahl

Beef Burgundy Stew

1-1/2 lb stew beef, floured
Olive oil

1/2 t thyme
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
3 c Burgundy
1/4 c tomato paste

1/2 c water
2 c mushrooms, quartered
12 small red potatoes, quartered
6 medium carrots, 1″ pieces, or baby carrots
2 small onions, quartered
2 cans broth, 15 oz

Cornstarch in water (opt)
Salt and pepper (opt)

Brown the floured stew beef in a stock pot, it you haven’t already precooked it. Add thyme through tomato paste. Heat it up and let this simmer (or transfer to a crock pot) for at least 1-1/2 hours. About 30 minutes before you want to serve, add the water through the broth. Bring the mixture up to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Thicken with cornstarch in water if needed. Add salt and pepper if needed.

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Beef burgundy stew

Asian casserole is a hot dish of comfort food! It has lots of familiar tastes if you grew up before the time that we’d discovered a lot of now-common ethnic cuisines. This was about as exotic as my family got, back in the day, and of course we called it “Oriental Casserole” back then

The casserole is an easy thirty minute meal, and can also be made as a Once-A-Month-Cooking dish. Make a double batch, and you can have one tonight and save another for later in your freezer!

Asian Casserole

1 lb ground beef
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1/2 onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped
1 c water

2 T cornstarch
1 t sugar
1/2 t ground ginger
2 T water

16 oz can of mixed Asian vegetables
10 package frozen peas

Brown the meat in a deep skillet, and add the vegetables to saute as well. Drain off the fat and add water. Bring to a boil. Lower heat to a simmer.

Combine the cornstarch through water and blend well. Add to the beef mixture and cook for a couple of minutes. Add the Asian vegetables and peas. Cool, cover, and freeze, or serve immediately.

To serve after freezing, cook the unthawed casserole at 400 for an hour. Serve with those wonderful crunchy chow mein noodles that you loved as a kid!

Image: Cyndi Lavin

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Asian casserole (OAMC)

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Fabulous slow cooked favorites

Vegetables and rice can get boring pretty quickly. Add a new sauce and liven things up. If you chop the lime up finely, everyone will have a good time trying to guess the “secret ingredient” …always a favorite game at our table!

Boil up some basmati rice, and start your sauce. A few minutes before the rice is ready, bring the sauce back up to simmer and add your veggies. We used broccoli, and it was delicious.

Ceylonese Sauce

2 T vegetable oil
Medium onion, chopped
Large clove of garlic, chopped
1 t mustard seeds
2 t curry paste or favorite curry spice mix
15 oz can of coconut milk
1/2 lime, chopped fine
Chili powder for those who like it hot

Saute the onions and garlic in oil in a large skillet. Crush the mustard seeds with mortar and pestle, and add with the curry paste to the pan. Heat well. Add the coconut milk and bring to a boil. Add the lime. Reduce to simmer and allow to thicken. Add vegetables to soften shortly before serving over rice. Add chili powder if desired.

Image: Cyndi Lavin

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Vegetables and rice with Ceylonese sauce

The least pleasant task in preparing this soup is coring the parsnips. I find it’s not too bad if you slice them lengthwise in quarters and then slice out the triangular shaped piece…don’t worry about getting every single woody fiber. The balsamic syrup seems like a bother to make too, but the flavor it imparts is out of this world. The soup is great without the syrup, but with it, you’ve gained a taste of heaven!

This amazing recipe is courtesy of Eating Well magazine.

Stirring in the syrup

Roasted Parsnip Soup

Makes 6 servings, generous 1 cup each

ACTIVE TIME: 40 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour

2 pounds parsnips, peeled and woody core removed
2 pears, peeled and cut into eighths
1 small yellow or white onion, peeled and cut into eighths
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon salt, divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1 cup balsamic vinegar
2 1/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
2 1/4 cups low-fat milk

1. Position rack in lower third of oven; preheat to 450°F.
2. Toss parsnips, pears, onion, oil, 1/2 teaspoon salt and pepper in a roasting pan. Roast, stirring every 10 minutes, until very soft and starting to brown, about 40 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, boil vinegar in a small saucepan until syrupy and reduced to about 1/4 cup, 10 to 14 minutes. (Watch the syrup carefully during the last few minutes of reducing to prevent burning.) Remove from the heat.
4. Puree half of the parsnip mixture with broth in a blender until very smooth; transfer to a large saucepan. Puree the other half with milk until very smooth. Add to the saucepan and stir in the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Reheat the soup over medium heat, stirring often, about 5 minutes. Gently reheat the balsamic syrup if it has become thicker than syrup while standing. Ladle the soup into bowls and drizzle with the balsamic syrup.

Image: Eating Well and Cyndi Lavin

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Roasted Parsnip Soup from Eating Well

Delicious delicious vindaloo sauce! The spicy tomato sauce described below can be used with chicken, pork, and lamb as well as with vegetables. We particularly love it with just vegetables, though, and as one of our vegetarian meals for the week, we don’t even miss the meat!If you do decide to add meat to the dish, you can add a cinnamon stick

If you’ve done once a week food preparation, this meal will go together really quickly, but it needs to simmer for a long time in a crock pot to be its best. It’s a great make-ahead meal. Put everything together in the morning, and walk into a house filled to the brim with good smells in the evening!

Raw veggies mixed with sauce

Vegetable Vindaloo

2 cloves garlic, mashed
1 T fresh ginger, chopped fine
1 t brown sugar
1 t coriander
1/2 t cumin
1/2 t ground cloves
1/2 t dry mustard
1/2 t tumeric
1/2 t cayenne
1 T white vinegar
6 oz can tomato paste
1-1/2 c water

1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, sliced
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
Head of cauliflower, any variety, chopped
15 oz can of kidney beans, drained
Salt and pepper
1/2 c fresh or frozen peas, thawed

Place the garlic through the water into a bowl and beat together to make the sauce. Place the onion through the kidney beans into the crock pot, pour the sauce over, and stir to coat. Simmer on low for at least 4 hours (more is fine). Add salt and pepper if desired, and stir peas into the mixture just before serving. Serve over basmati rice.

Images: Cyndi Lavin

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Vegetable vindaloo

This isn’t fast food. This is for when you want to impress! It is, however, easy food

For once, I followed the directions pretty much exactly: my only substitution was to use real cheese instead of low fat. I also mixed cheddar and parmesan. But besides that, I did follow the directions. Oh, and I used quite a bit more fresh tarragon than called for.

I really like tarragon!

Savory Carrot & Tarragon Tart
Courtesy of Eating Well magazine

Crust
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh tarragon leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive or canola oil
1/4 cup low-fat plain yogurt

Filling
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive or canola oil
1 cup thinly sliced red onion
1 1/2 cups grated carrots
2 tablespoons dry sherry or rice vinegar, divided
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 cup shredded reduced-fat Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt
1/2 cup low-fat milk
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh tarragon or 3/4 teaspoon dried
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. To prepare crust: Coat a 9- to 10-inch tart pan with cooking spray. Place all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, tarragon and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a food processor; pulse to combine. Add butter one piece at a time, pulsing once or twice after each addition, until incorporated. Add 1/4 cup oil and 1/4 cup yogurt and pulse just until the dough starts to come together. Transfer the dough to the prepared pan (it will be crumbly), spread evenly and press firmly into the bottom and all the way up the sides to form a crust.
3. Bake the crust until set but not browned, about 15 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.
4. To prepare filling: Heat 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in carrots and 1 tablespoon sherry (or rice vinegar) and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. Remove from the heat.
5. Spread mustard over the crust. Sprinkle with Cheddar, then evenly spread the carrot mixture in the tart shell.
6. Whisk 1/2 cup yogurt, milk, eggs, tarragon, the remaining 1 tablespoon sherry (or rice vinegar), 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and pour in the filling.
7. Bake the tart until the filling is firm and the edges are golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes. Let cool for 15 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or chilled.

Image: Cyndi Lavin

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Savory Carrot & Tarragon Tart from Eating Well